Review: For ‘Molly Sweeney,’ Not Seeing Was Never the Obstacle

Molly Sweeney can establish dozens of vegetation by contact, catch a lie in a well-recognized voice and dance ecstatically by way of a crowd with out disturbing a hair. Because she misplaced a lot of her eyesight when she was 10 months outdated — besides, crucially, her capability to discern mild from darkish — Molly has developed eager powers of sensory notion.

Sure-footed although she is, the title character in “Molly Sweeney,” now operating on the Irish Repertory Theater, is handled like a pawn by two males who can’t see past their very own self-interests. That’s one in every of a number of conspicuous paradoxes explored in Brian Friel’s 1994 confessional drama, the ultimate installment of the theater’s season dedicated to the playwright’s work.

Like Friel’s extra usually revived “Faith Healer,” “Molly Sweeney” is advised by way of a sequence of monologues addressed to the viewers. All three characters, who stay onstage all through, narrate their subjective recollections of a six-month span (the yr is unspecified; the setting is Ballybeg, Friel’s fictional Irish hamlet). But solely one in every of them can communicate with unbiased readability on the central incidence: what occurred when a health care provider tried to revive Molly’s sight.

Friel’s extraordinary hand with vivid prose is particularly evident in Molly’s model of occasions. Played with a poised sense of marvel by Sarah Street, Molly recollects relishing within the stunning particulars of a world she had no want of seeing. The concept for an eye fixed operation got here from her husband Frank, performed by John Keating with the frazzled depth of a mad scientist. A dilettante vulnerable to colourful tangents, he sees Molly as an object of fascination and a private trigger. Molly’s selfish ophthalmologist, Mr. Rice (Rufus Collins), considers her a possible miracle affected person who may revive his profession.

Directed by Charlotte Moore, this manufacturing is trustworthy to the creator’s acknowledged desire for minimal staging (this system quotes Friel’s disinterest in “idea or interpretation”). That places the main target squarely on the three actors, who do high quality work illuminating Friel’s descriptive language, notably Street and Keating as spouses who gravely misjudge one another. The performers are confined to their thirds of the stage, sparse however for a chair and window every (the set is by Charlie Corcoran), whereas mottled blue-and-violet lighting (by Michael Gottlieb) creates an impression of a growing field of regard.

Friel’s characterizations of the 2 males obtain extra weight (a subplot concerning the physician’s spouse operating off with a rival feels superfluous), which appears partly by design but in addition just like the construction of the story betraying its topic. It’s irritating to hearken to Molly’s husband and her physician rattle on about her whereas she sits with the quiet grace of a Pietà, slumping additional in her seat because the present approaches the tip of its 2 hours and quarter-hour. If it is a retrospective account of her destiny, Molly’s personal phrases are more and more the one ones of any dramatic curiosity, however she stays outnumbered.

The concept {that a} blind particular person can have a wealthy view of the world — that “seeing isn’t understanding” — is framed right here as a serious philosophical revelation. Partly impressed by a case examine by the doctor and author Oliver Sacks, “Molly Sweeney” has the forensic tone of an observer whose discoveries can appear condescending towards individuals with disabilities, by assuming that life and not using a incapacity can be preferable. This may clarify why Molly herself is a slippery character to understand: acutely attuned to the world round her however in some way unsure of her personal thoughts. “Of course I needed to see,” Molly recollects with out a lot conviction. It looks as if an absence of creativeness to not think about that she might need felt in any other case.

Molly Sweeney
Through June 30 at Irish Repertory Theater, Manhattan; irishrep.org. Running time: 2 hours quarter-hour.